


B Sides: #0: BOREALIS

by Lgbarnecraft



Series: Fates: B Sides ~ A Strange Remembrance [1]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates, Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Art, Computer Programming, Computers, Cyberpunk, Does that count as a crossover?, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hackers, Homestuck style, Music, NINTENDO POWER, NOW YOU'RE PLAYING WITH POWER, Postmodernism, Rated T for language and themes, References to real life pop culture, Retro Gaming, Shitty art but it’s art, Trippy shit yo, Warnings About Stairs, architecture, i think it does, im telling you, mfw you forget like the most important tag:, postmodern, this is gonna be crazy, to be specific
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-01
Updated: 2019-01-15
Packaged: 2019-04-30 19:55:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14504346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lgbarnecraft/pseuds/Lgbarnecraft
Summary: It’s a very special day at the Borealis research facility, the royal family is coming to visit and their project could finally launch off the ground this time.That is, if things go to plan.You must make sure they do, however possible.Are you up for this test of skill?





	1. 0.1: CONTEXT

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All games need to have reasons and justification for playing... 
> 
> Life rarely gives such luxury...

>opening_narration_WiP

Away from your own, there is a strange world. Its people have neglected to grant it a name due to its many inexplicable mysteries.

==>

Hoshido to the east, Nohr to the west. Two nations perpetually opposite rule this world, give or take a few minor political players.

==>

The mysteries of the land gave rise to extreme technological advancement centuries earlier than most worlds might begin to see such things.

==>

Before, the two nations would reluctantly exist “at peace.” Their armies would occasionally clash when one country would break the laws of the other, there’d be panic, meetings, forced apology, that's that, y'know?

==>

As generations and reincarnations went on and the world began to unravel... There became no need for armies. No need for aggressive magic or blades. No need for weapons of mass destruction.

==>

Conflict was from then on waged through INVENTION, EMOTION, and INFORMATION.

==>

Nohr became a tech utopia, Hoshido became a land of magical opportunity. But the conflict was still there, passive-aggressively kept going almost out of tradition, though there was no need for it...

==>

The HERO will rise up to end the conflict. They are STRONG, EMPATHETIC, and WISE.

==>

On this day, the HERO's awakening begins.

~~~  
|ACT|#00 ~ BOREALIS  
~~~  
0.1: CONTEXT  
~~~

>Borealis

A young girl stands in her room, clearly irritated, judging by the darkness of the outside world as seen through the window, she’s not happy about being awoken this early in the morning. She's wearing pajamas with a generic dragon pattern adorned on them, which looks quite embarrassing. Her hair is blue from the top but gradually turns to red. What is her NAME?

>Enter NAME: [Dragonlady]

ARE YOU SURE?

>Confirm NAME: [Dragonlady]

...

...

...

I N V A L I D (Reason: DefinedRadiant already set in motion.)

>Examine room

Unfortunately, this character already has a NAME due to an error you don’t understand. Maybe if you continue searching you’ll figure this all out...

==>

You’ve just stepped out of bed, viewing your small dormitory. It’s extremely cramped, most of the space allotted to your bed and your sacred computer. There’s a shelf next to the door with many books and disc cases, and to top it off there’s a single window overlooking a small town.

==>

Your room is indicative of your interests and hobbies, of which you have a few. For one, there are many multicolor origami dragons hanging from the ceiling. As well as a poster for what looks to be a film, “HACKERS.” It’s quite evident you like computers, judging by your well kept and beefy computer rig. You’re also evidently into dragons. Like, REALLY INTO DRAGONS. You know they’re real. They gotta be. It’s the only way to explain the weird shit in this realm, man.

==>

Now that you’re awake, you make a beeline for your PC, sitting at the desk and typing in some login credentials.

———

 

PRIVATE NETWORK LOGIN: Nohrian Boreal Research Facility

>Login: [AstralDragon05]  
>Password: [************]

FINAL ANSWER? [y/n]

>y

...

...

...

H I T !

Welcome, LILITH! (Employee clearance level: C, IT Technician)

———

==>

With that, your name is now known. You are LILITH. And you work full time at a Fortress in Nohr, to the north, aptly named Borealis. You work as an IT technician, which is a lot harder than just making sure the internet works due to the amount of innovative technology constantly researched here. You got your job after helping develop a secure network for the fortress to use for the purposes of hiding data from supposed hackers. Despite being the place's best programmer, you only have 1 level above minimum clearance. You don’t think it’s fair, even the damn maids get B level clearance. Granted, the maids can handle firearms and you can’t. So...

>Lilith: Check channels, see if anyone else heard what you did.

You were rudely awoken by a loud alarm, which played only briefly. Might as well ask your superior, false alarms aren't often.

==>

You open to your modest looking desktop. The screensaver is a large and intimidating green dragon. There’s your internet browser of choice: Google Chrom, your favored PC gaming platform: Nintendo Eshop, a file folder cache for your job, and a chat client: DRConnect. You double click on the DRConnect icon, a logo of what looks to be some kind of portal.

———

Launching DRConnect...

...

...

...

DeepRealmConnect: Connection, no matter where, no matter when!

...

Welcome, AstralDragon05!

CHANNEL LIST:  
#BorealisGeneral  
#NohrianIT  
#Retainers

USER LIST:  
MaidMayhem (Status: Offline)  
TeatimeSolace (Status: Online)  
FloralShoppe (Status: Idle)  
GUNTER (Status: Online)  
BossMoro (Status: Online)  
DramaKing (Status: Idle)  
ForeverLover (Status: Idle)  
CuttingWit (Status: Idle)  
SilentProtag (Status: Offline)

COMMAND HELP:  
connect [CHANNEL] - Connects to a listed channel  
connect [USER] - Connects to a listed user  
info [CHANNEL] - Displays information about a channel  
info [USER] - Displays information about a user  
join [CHANNEL] [PASSWORD] - Adds a new channel to the list  
create [CHANNELNAME] [PASSWORD] - Creates a new channel  
scan [TAGS] - Searches for channels with certain criteria  
tags - Displays the full tag criteria list  
help - Displays this command list  
help [COMMAND] - Displays helpful info and tips for a command

>info [GUNTER]

User: GUNTER  
Status: Online as of 3:30 AM, Today  
Personal Description: The Boss  
Mutual Channels: #BorealisGeneral, #Retainers

———

It seems Gunter has been up for a lot longer than you, it’s currently 5:05 AM. If anyone knows what that alarm was, it’s him.

———

>connect [GUNTER]

Attempting connection...

...

Connected, inviting to chat...

...

Accepted!

...

|AstralDragon05 chats with GUNTER|

AstralDragon05: Morning boss!

GUNTER: I don’t think I’ve seen you up this early ever, looking to earn that raise?

AstralDragon05: You know me, 5 years later and I’m still working to apologize...

GUNTER: We have all already forgiven you, you know.

AstralDragon05: All except Jakob

GUNTER: He'll come around. Anyways, if you’re contacting me, it means you want info, correct?

AstralDragon05: My PC got an alarm for a bit, I never set the alarm clock, I don’t suppose we're under attack now are we?

GUNTER: Oh, that alarm?

GUNTER: It was false, and wasn’t sent to many PCs, one of our D-listers was smoking and tripped the smoke sensor. I am terribly sorry. Maybe you could join me for coffee and chess at 6 so I can make it up to you?

AstralDragon05: Sounds like a plan.

|AstralDragon05 ends chat with GUNTER|

———

He’s hiding stuff from you. He stalled for a response by questioning the alarm and likely came up with the false alarm excuse. He’s done this before, you curse your C level clearance once again...

>Lilith: Check other colleagues

You decide it wouldn’t hurt to do some snooping, now that you know something is up. You developed a module a while back that allows you to get extra data from the info command.

———

>infocrack [FloralShoppe]

User: FloralShoppe (Flora)  
Status: Idle (Online 10 hours ago, awake)  
Personal Description: The smart twin, ice ice baby  
Mutual Channels: #BorealisGeneral, #Retainers  
USER FREQUENTLY USES INVISIBLE MODE  
Borealis Clearance: B  
Borealis Position: Maid, Covert Defense, Retainer

>infocrack [MaidMayhem]

User: MaidMayhem (Felicia)  
Status: Offline (Online 12 hours ago, sleeping)  
Personal Description: The strong twin, banned from kitchen  
Mutual Channels: #Borealis, #Retainers  
USER HAS NO SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY  
Borealis Clearance: B  
Borealis Position: Maid, Covert Defense, Retainer

>infocrack [TeatimeSolace]

User: TeatimeSolace (Jakob)  
Status: Online (When the fuck does he ever go offline?)  
Personal Description: Pompous asshole  
Mutual Channels: #Borealis, #Retainers  
USER CONSTANTLY COMBS CHATLOGS  
Borealis Clearance: B  
Borealis Position: Butler, Covert Defense, Special Operations, Retainer

INCOMING CHAT REQUEST FROM: BossMoro  
SHALL YOU ACCEPT? [y/n]

———

==>

Your computer makes a quiet chime, letting you know that you’re getting a chat request. It’s from your boss. Your REAL boss. You better take this or there’ll be hell to pay, you already had trouble explaining how your PC self destroyed that one time, who knows what’ll happen if you dawdle with your employer. Besides, despite his attitude, he’s a friend to the end.

———

>y

...

|BossMoro chats with AstralDragon05|

BossMoro: This is it.

AstralDragon05: This is it?

BossMoro: I’m sure of it, everything is about to align, you gotta be ready.

AstralDragon05: I see... So he finally gets to wake up for real?

BossMoro: Only if everything goes to plan, which, judging by this alarm business, nothing's gonna go to plan...

BossMoro: Your colleagues are gonna try to keep you far away from the project today, don’t you know what day it is?

AstralDragon05: Taco Tuesday?

BossMoro: It’s the 2nd Tuesday of the month, it’s test day for the project.

AstralDragon05: The Project has a name

BossMoro: Don’t be so uptight.

AstralDragon05: Don’t call my friend as if they’re a thing.

BossMoro: Look, I could clip your wings any time I want, kiddo, I’m helping you, even when I’m entirely opposed to doing so.

BossMoro: Just figure out what tripped that alarm, and meet me at the D Lister subway. Got that, kid?

AstralDragon05: Fine

BossMoro: Hold up, I know you’re cranky from waking up and having to deal with my ass, Lilith.

BossMoro: Do you wanna save your game?

AstralDragon05: You called me Lilith instead of kid, this day must be REALLY IMPORTANT.

BossMoro: I got a feeling, now lemme log the progress...

|BossMoro ends chat with AstralDragon05|

———

>Save Progress [1]

Saving...

...

...

...

Save complete, printing Save Receipt:

File 1:  
Act: #0-Borealis  
Lilith  
Time played: 15 minutes

>Lilith: Reminisce on the day.

Today is a very special day, it seems. The second Tuesday of every month is test day. 

Borealis is a weapons research facility. For the past 13 years they’ve focused their efforts onto one big project. You’ve only been a part of it for 5 years, and the higherups never give you the full detailing of the project, though you’ve grown rather close to him... A soldier trained purely by Virtual Reality to be the best possible, for the glory and honor of Nohr. Every so often, the subject must be tested. Members from Nohr's prestigious royal family come to visit, and he usually spars with the high prince. It’s great data, but until he can win one of those real fights against a strong opponent like the crown prince, the project cannot leave this place.

You've made it your duty to make sure he gets out of here to see the world, it’s a promise you made a long time ago. It’s a promise you intend to keep.

>Lilith: Get ready to rock.

You swiftly change out of your pajamas and into your work attire. Which currently consists of a lab coat a size too large, a navy blue shirt, black sweatpants, some brown leather boots, and to top it off you wear your lucky RED DRAGONS baseball team cap. They may be the worst team in the realm, but they’ve certainly brought you a little bit of luck in the past. You then tie your hair into a braid draped over your left shoulder.

==>

You need your essential work tools. 

You first grab your Nintendo 3DS Pro, it may not be the most powerful, but it’s certainly one of the most modifiable, useful, and cheapest pocket computers on the market. It never fails you for your needs. You don’t know many people who don’t own one, especially in a workplace setting.

Next, after stuffing that previous item into your pocket, you take your key ring and place it in your other lab coat pocket. Your several keys include secret maintenance passages, the server room, elevator shafts, and other hard to reach places. Perks of IT. But C level clearance still means you’re not allowed on the VR wing during project training, or the top floor. 

That looks to be all you’ll need for another exciting day working for the ever gracious government of Nohr. You can’t wait to get started, especially since the project you’ve worked so hard on maintaining with everyone may finally be able to get his feet off the ground and fly...

You leave your room, locking the door, and make your way from the dormitories to the rest of the facilities…

>Lilith: Get on the elevator.

This place is huge, even you still get lost from time to time. Thankfully, your 3DS comes with a trusty blueprint map of the whole facilities.

Borealis used to be one tower, a military FOB, but over time it became clear that an FOB here was pretty pointless since it added no tactical advantage. Now, Borealis is THREE towers arranged in a triangle formation above a small farming village. 

From bottom to top...

The lowest sections of each tower makes up the D LISTERS area. People with level D clearance stick to the lower levels. They’re given bullshit office jobs and, if you’re being blunt with yourself here, it’s a distraction for what’s really going on. You’ve filled in for D Listers before, half of these jobs don’t even have relevance. But, the pay is good enough to draw people in. The very lowest area is a subway that goes right to the city, since D Listers have no dormitory. 

The next highest sections of each tower are dormitories for C, B, and A LISTERS. One of these is where you live. They’re extremely cramped, except for the A list dorms, but there aren’t many A Listers other than Gunter and the Royal Family.

From there, the tower you’re currently in, tower C, holds two floors of storage for a great variety of stuff. From old computers to wyvern feed. Security keeps a tight watch on it all, so you plan raids for parts very carefully. You’ve been successful the few times you’ve tried. It’s pretty much abandoned until noon, so it’s an eerily quiet maze of industrial crates and cardboard boxes.

Tower B’s fourth and fifth floors are the VR wing and security wing. The VR wing is where VR training is done on the project's test subject. You’re frequently called in to run stress tests on the hardware and keep it in shape. You really wish you could just see what the demos were… Not that VR interests you, it’s a fad in game development, but this isn’t being used for fun and games, it’s being used for large scale war operations. You kind of want to know what you’re fixing. The security wing is where B Listers get their weapons and jobs. You’re allowed up there, since you’ve got connections with several B List workers, mainly the main covert ops retainers to the project. They masquerade as maids, butlers, and simple workers, kind of like secret service.

Tower A’s fourth and fifth floors are a sprawling library, both digital and physical. You go here in free time to rent out their large selection of video games, and occasionally read a good book. It’s also the only place you’re allowed to drink coffee that isn’t the food courts in the D List floors…

The top floors of the A and B towers are rooms for the royal family’s 4 other members. There’s a fifth room, but the king never shows up here, even when he says he will. 

Finally, the top floor of tower C. It’s the tallest of the towers, and at its crest, the project you’re all working so hard on is sleeping soundly. It’s extremely well protected. Only specific A Listers are allowed up there, they’ve got a passcode. The shit is mechanically locked off, so a password crack doesn’t help you. Not that you’ve never seen The Project in action. It’s just that you’d really like to see him more.

All the towers are connected via tram services and elevators. It’s a pretty unsafe system when you think about it, but it’s pretty fast, and this peaceful town office buildings deal is a great coverup. 

Your work day doesn’t start until you’re alerted to a problem, so you’ve got free time. You can figure out this alarm business one of two ways. Either coax the info out of one of your colleagues, or get to snooping in the security wing. You’ll figure it out on the trip up. You walk down the long hall to the elevators…

==>

You stop. You always do, turning to the left. There’s paintings on the wall, large portraits of the royal family. They’re pretty imposing in this long hallway...

>Lilith: Examine [Portraits]

From left to right, you slowly walk by to gaze at the beautiful artwork.

The first portrait is of a small blonde girl with two long curls of hair drifting at her side, wearing a white dress in a bed of flowers. This is the youngest princess of Nohr, Elise. You’re quite familiar with her, since she’s always buying those crappy new wave notebook computers, whenever the royals visit you usually spend some time talking to the energetic girl while removing malware from whatever new device she has. Elise is a gifted healer, and will talk your head off, which in some cases is a form of healing if you think about it.

The one to the right is just a simple, supposedly candid, shot of Nohr's youngest prince, Leo, sitting in a chair reading. You have a suspicion that this portrait really was drawn as a legit candid, there’s no other explanation for why his vest collar is inside out. The few times you’ve seen him, he’s either reading or looking like he’s plotting murder. Countless jokes about his edginess can be found in archives of the #Retainers DRConnect Server. Either way, his dignified bearing carries enough weight, you guess. You know Leo carries the Brynhildr tome, and you know firsthand what that thing can do.

The next portrait is... Only a single step away from being pornography. Beautiful, but honestly overselling her looks, especially that chest. No, you’re not jealous, seriously, you mean it. At any rate, Camilla is the eldest daughter, she’s kind most of the time, until you make a true mistake towards her interests. One time, these D listers made Elise cry by stealing her stuffed animals, those two were swiftly ejected to Krakenburg for a promotion, they haven’t been around to speak of their newfound success. (Get the picture? They got offed. You can’t say you feel sorry for them.) You know when to be around and when to stay away from this one.

The final portrait is the commanding figure of the crown prince, Xander. The spitting image of a prince, wearing the armor passed down by his ancestors and holding his sacred blade Siegfried. You don’t know what his sword does, but it looks like it hurts to get hit by, as most swords do. Xander is the one who tests the subject's swordsmanship and tactics, always. But even as a grizzled warrior, he seems to be as attached to this project as you are. 

You give a sarcastic salute to the crown prince and continue on your way to the elevator...

>Lilith: Enter the elevator

You click the button and wait a few minutes for the elevator to get to you, once it does you board and wait for the doors to close. The elevator is a large platform meant to fit many people on it at once, it feels so lonely with just you in it. There’s two large rows of buttons, one for towers and one for floors. There’s no catchy elevator music either...

>Lilith: Confirm Destination

ENTER TOWER BUTTON: [B]

ENTER FLOOR BUTTON: [5]

FINAL ANSWER?

>Lilith: Confirm

...

...

...

H I T !

You click the corresponding buttons for Tower B and Floor 5, the elevator immediately springs to life. The side of the tower opens up, and cables begin to drag it towards a different Tower, leaving you with quite a view...

>Lilith: Admire the morning light

You really do wish you could, but aside from a few orange rays, Nohr is in a state of constant night due to the harsh cloud formations plaguing the land. Even still, your body rises as if it were morning in a normal place. You don’t miss your home, you’re grateful to be here, even if it is dark and lonely. You longed for something you never thought you could have, and here today, you are so close. You mustn’t give up, you sense that the end of the game may be approaching, and a new one shall begin from there...

~~~  
TO BE CONTINUED IN 0.2: TUTORIAL  
~~~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We all work towards the same goal, yet our purposes shall diverge...
> 
> %%%  
> AUTHOR'S NOTE
> 
> Hello, welcome to my first full fic. This has been conceptualized and redone several times, simply put this fan fiction shall be quite the trip. There have been many modern recreations of Fates, but I think you’ll quickly find that this one definitely carves it’s own place. I hope you all enjoy the wild ride I’m fixing to spin.
> 
> FUN FACTS:
> 
> Yes, the writing style was inspired by Homestuck. It works best for what I am trying to do with this story.
> 
> DRConnect is like a command line Discord, you have to type commands to use the menu functions.
> 
>  I realized about halfway through this that the baseball team RED DRAGONS was a JoJo reference. I just came up with something dragon related on the spot for Lilith's cap since she doesn’t have her bonnet, and the reference was unintentional. But it’s pretty cool though.
> 
> It should be pretty easy to guess who the other users in Lilith's DRConnect user list are, one of them is literally just a rip of their heroes tagline.
> 
> The FINAL ANSWER sequence is a reference to Suda51's Flower Sun, and Rain
> 
> Don’t worry, Lilith won’t be the only protagonist, but I definitely think she deserves much love and praise!  
> EDIT: As of May 5th, 2018, I’ve tweaked a few things for the “system” and added a beginning note.  
> %%%


	2. 0.2 - TUTORIAL

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All games must give you time to learn...
> 
> Life forces you to learn the hard way explicitly...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> %%%  
> It is strongly advised that you open all [S]ound links in new tabs! These are links to music for scenes.  
> -Lgbarnecraft/Radio Rabbit  
> %%%

~~~  
0.2: TUTORIAL  
~~~

===

Checking live file...

File 1:  
Act: #0-Borealis  
Lilith  
Time played: 20 minutes

Weighing importances... Done.

Would you like to show this console log in the future during importance checks? [y/n]

>n

FINAL ANSWER?

>n

...

...

...

H I T !

...

File 1/#0-BOREALIS/Nohr/Borealis Research Facility/June 11th/4:17 AM/SmFrb2I=/Introduction

===

A young man stands in his dormitory within the Borealis facility, he seems deep in focus even after only just waking up. He's dressed in a Butler’s formal attire, clearly ready for his work day. His hair is a grey shade tied into a ponytail. What is his NAME?

>Enter NAME: [Pompous Asshole]

FINAL ANSWER?

>Confirm NAME: [Pompous Asshole]

...

...

...

I N V A L I D (Reason: DefinedRadiant already set in motion.)

>Examine room

Once again, this character seems unable to be freely named. You’ll have to figure yourself out.

==>

You’ve just closed your bureau of clothing, turning to view the rest of your room. It appears to be a little larger than the dormitories in tower C. It’s got a bed, a simple government issued computer, a wide rectangle window with dark blue curtains, and a closet. 

==>

You keep your interests and your work separate, after all, your job is one of your interests. You take it seriously. Dead serious, after all you are a right hand protector of the project, you serve the cause of Nohr, but more importantly you’ve devoted yourself to this project so much so that you’d do anything for it. Even kill. Even die. But, that’s not going to happen so easily. Adorning your walls are a few decorative knives, but you keep many more hidden on you. Though your role as a butler is a cover for your security status, you do enjoy the finer points of butler culture, one shelf is laden with tea sets aplenty, you can handmake coffee (which really helps when the coffee machine has a line going down the hall), and you’ve studied the art of loyalty and service for a very long time since being here. You have one more interest, but it’s a secret to everybody, one you cannot reveal to any audience...

>SmFrb2I=: Check your computer

You don’t have the time. You’re already stuffing your GameBoy PocketPro into your vest pocket, it’s not very sophisticated, but you’re not one of those IT workers who thinks they understand everything without even having clearance, like SOMEONE you know... 

==>

You’ve rushed out of bed because you received an alarm Level B Covert, which denotes a threat that’s emerged that needs to be dealt with without anyone else's knowledge. As far as you know, you’re the only one who received such an alarm, otherwise you’d hear a little more clamor in the dormitories. You’re to meet up with your superior in the security wing for a short briefing...

==>

You take the GameBoy PocketPro, the attached camera cartridge scans your facial muscles, allowing it to unlock.

———

NETWORK LOGIN: BOREALIS

USER: [TeatimeSolace]  
PASS:[*****]

FINAL ANSWER? [Y/N]

Y

...

...

...

H I T !

USER [JAKOB] LOGGED IN

>DRConnect

Launching DRConnect...

Irregular version. Checking version...  
Version: GameBoy

Syncing portals for low signal... Done.

Welcome to DRConnect, connection anytime, anywhere!

COMMAND HELP:  
connect [CHANNEL] - Connects to a listed channel  
connect [USER] - Connects to a listed user  
info [CHANNEL] - Displays information about a channel  
info [USER] - Displays information about a user  
join [CHANNEL] [PASSWORD] - Adds a new channel to the list  
create [CHANNELNAME] [PASSWORD] - Creates a new channel  
scan [TAGS] - Searches for channels with certain criteria  
tags - Displays the full tag criteria list  
help - Displays this command list  
help [COMMAND] - Displays helpful info and tips for a command  
helpGB - displays special commands for the GameBoy version module

>helpGB  
QM [USER] [MESSAGE] - Sends a small length message to a user  
cam [USER] - Uses GameBoy Camera to take and send an image to a user

>QM [GUNTER] [I am on my way]

...

Quick message sent.

———

==>

It’s definitely gimped. This thing doesn’t even have a color display! On top of that, many of the commands fail due to owning such an outdated version. But at least sending quick messages is easy. You’re a man of few words, a good butler should speak only when necessary and only what’s necessary for the most part. 

>Jakob: Take inventory

You of course have your GameBoy tucked safe inside of a vest pocket. That takes up 1 unit of inventory. But rest assured, that pocket will be more than enough.

==>

All in this world are born with two INVENTORY SLOTS, but very soon, augments were created to grant more. Just like everyone else, you have both a PASSIVE INVENTORY and ACTIVE INVENTORY. Your ACTIVE INVENTORY is objects in your hands that can be interacted with or used on other items, while your PASSIVE INVENTORY is items that are tucked away and invisible to the eyes. Your hands are active inventory slots, of course. Your clothing grants you two more PASSIVE slots. 

===

Jakob's INVENTORY...

>show

ACTIVE:  
None

PASSIVE:  
GameBoy PocketPro  
Knife (5)

>help

show - shows all utility items  
showarmor - shows all wearable items/augments  
des [ITEMNAME] - shows the description of an item  
id [ITEMNAME] - shows the ID code of an item  
loc - shows allocations for storage of PASSIVE items  
arrange - opens the ARRANGEMENT MENU  
eject - drops all items from PASSIVE at once  
config - opens the CONFIGURATION MENU

===

You could get a bag or magical storage service to get more space with ease, but your training as a butler has made you very resourceful. You keep all five of your special tools in passive slots of your own fashion.

===

Jakob's INVENTORY...

>showarmor

STANDARD ISSUE TACTICAL VEST  
“Butlers are like magicians, they must have many tricks, and never reveal them, not even to their masters, for the glory of their service...” -Nohrian Elite Butler's Guide.  
+Grants 2 PASSIVE slots  
+Grants 2 FLEXIBLE slots

STANDARD ISSUE TACTICAL SLACKS  
“Your opponents must underestimate you, starting with how flexible your jeans really are...” -Nohrian Elite Butler's Guide.  
+Grants 2 pocket PASSIVE slots  
+Allows full range of motion, despite appearance

STANDARD ISSUE TACTICAL BOOTS  
“The bootknife technique is more than just a parlor trick...” -Nohrian Elite Butler's Guide.  
+Grants 2 FLEXIBLE SLOTS

PURPLE RIBBON  
“That uniform is a symbol of your service, so I got you this as a symbol of friendship, sorry if that sounds cheesy...” -Q29ycmlu  
+Never remove this  
+Grants 1 PASSIVE slot

>loc

STANDARD ISSUE TACTICAL VEST  
GameBoy PocketPro  
Throwing Knife(2)

STANDARD ISSUE TACTICAL SLACKS  
EMPTY

STANDARD ISSUE TACTICAL BOOTS  
Throwing Knife(2)

PURPLE RIBBON  
Throwing Knife

===

From a mix of your butler training, interest in magician's combat tricks, and inventory min/maxing, you’ve developed a combat style centered around FLEXIBLE INVENTORY. FLEXIBLE items are items that can be switched from PASSIVE to ACTIVE, all without sacrificing your TURN in battle. In many cases, items that were previously PASSIVE/ACTIVE exclusive can be made FLEXIBLE via special skills and augments.

>Jakob: Get to work

You decide this is enough messing around with menus for the morning. You’re always prepared. With that you hastily make your way out the door, turning around to make sure it’s locked, then down the hall towards the elevator...

==>

You pass by many other maids and butlers scrambling into the elevator, you don’t recognize any covert ops. But they’re enough to fill the platform, so it looks like you’ll have to wait for the next one...

==>

You grow slightly anxious, the alarm you received was urgent, no doubt a threat arising. If they seek to harm Project Protagonist, you shall be forced to intervene. You wonder if this will build up to some kind of ending, you’ve been here for so long, holding onto this project like your life depended on it, because your life does depend on it. You take a deep breath. Thinking about the whole ordeal was always hard, the early days you spent here were maddening to you, you at the time having lost purpose, as soon as a new one presented himself to you, there was simply no way you could refuse...

===

File 1/#0-BOREALIS/Nohr/Borealis Research Facility/June 11th/4:20 AM/Lilith/Investigate alarm

===

>Lilith: Quit admiring the view, get to planning

You need a plan, no doubt things are going to be misfortunate. Your employer said it would be, and you’ve never known him to be wrong.

==>

First, the alarm. You initially had no clue why you received it, it didn’t seem like anyone else on C List did. Then you remembered one of your many listeners had recently infested itself onto Jakob's GameBoy PocketPro when you reluctantly helped him install a camera for it. In hindsight, it was petty payback for his continued grudge against you, well it’s not just you, it’s a grudge against most of the people here, more like everyone in the world except for a few people. But that move seems to have paid off today... Looking through your 3DS, you figured out that the alarm was a B List Covert Ops call to arms. That’s pretty fucking huge. But still, what for? You’d have to keep snooping.

==>

Boss mentioned you’d be “kept away from the project” today. You wonder if he was referring to Jakob, that’s part of his grudge with everyone. He’s attached to Project Protagonist with such a fervor that it makes you wonder what’s going on in that head of his. Of course, you do have some idea, he’s explained it. This project is all he has left, a family of sorts. But the line is drawn when he starts becoming possessive over it... Or maybe you’re the possessive one? You and [Q29ycmlu] have a pretty good friendship, even if you’re not really one of his retainers, the few times you get to talk are always moments you remember. But it’s just so strange to think of him as a family... You think this is confusing, and that you need to quit reading into it so much. Really. You need to stop. Now.

Maybe The Boss meant that you’d be given oddjobs to keep you from interacting with him on test day, since you’re not a retainer officially, that’s a bad image to show, royalty just fraternizing with subjects who aren't part of the elite.

>Lilith: Reach tower B

The glass elevator begins to reach its destination, the walls of the tower open up to swallow the vessel. You can see out of the barred door, the B dormitory hall. Expecting to go up, you’re surprised when the door slides open, seems someone else is getting on-

“Here we go...” You sigh.

===

File 1/#0-BOREALIS/Nohr/Borealis Research Facility/June 11th/4:20 AM/Jakob/Receive briefing

===

>Jakob: Get onto the elevator

You want to refuse, there’s no way you’d want yourself alone with this filth! But you’re late enough already, and there is no point in dawdling further. You scoff as your boots leave the carpet of the hall and clang against the metal of the elevator floor.

This girl...

This fool...

This traitor...

She makes your blood boil, many people working here do... They’re not taking this as seriously as you are, but her? You fail to see how or why Lilith should be trusted with any amount of this project's success! Not after what she’s done prior. Who knows, perhaps she is still set on derailing this operation, you definitely think so. But you have nothing to say to her... And as the elevator doors close, it appears she has nothing to say to you either, quite ideal.

==>

As silence engulfs the two of you, it dawns that you’re alone with her. She has no weapons with which to harm you, though that doesn’t mean she can’t be a treacherous fiend since she does have a computer capable of such. You could kill her, effectively ending any tension that could be brought on towards your liege, but that would prove unproductive in the end. For now, you simply stare forward, as does she...

[[S]](https://soundcloud.com/user-772903702/sandalwood) >Lilith: Break the ice

Jakob is an asshole, but he’s nothing if not professional. You’re both want the same thing, maybe you should make that clearer to him... You open your mouth to speak your peace.

==>

“Beautiful day, ain’t it?” You ask, trying to kill the dramatic tension.

Jakob averts his gaze, but doesn’t offer the solace you seek. “You can’t call this daytime yet. And don’t think I’ve no clue what you’re after.” He steps forwards, away from you. “You will stay far away from my master, do I make myself clear?”

So, it seems this was war. At least you tried.

“You make yourself pretty foggy, jackass.” You retort. “I’ve worked here five years now and my name isn’t clear in your eyes? What makes you the law now?” This time it’s you who takes the step closer. 

“You are a criminal, even now, what with all of your breaking of the clearance level rules... I know you’re still willing to gather and give out all of our project data, for some cheap thrill as you claim, no less!” He raises his voice. You scoff. This guy still doesn’t know shit about you. You had to do it, you had to at least try... You shake your head, that was the past, you don’t want to remember. 

“I’m just as close to him as you are, I already told you, back then I didn’t know what I was getting myself into-” You try to point out, Jakob's hand disrespectfully raising interrupts you.

“Save it, I’ve tried all I could to convince [Q29ycmlu] to keep his distance from you, and now that he is so close to leaving this place, I think I’ll just take matters into my own hands whenever I can...”

“You’re delusional as always when it comes to me...”

“And you’re not doing anything to convince me otherwise, why else would you worm your way into a web of connections like you have?” Jakob smirks, leaning closer to you. “I know you’re more than capable of getting to places you shouldn’t be, you’re lucky I haven’t been able to convict you of anything damning in your attempts to sneak into areas that you’ve no clearance to enter.”

“...” He’s always gotta remind you that he knows. But he doesn’t know everything. He knows how, but not why. He also doesn’t know that you’re tracking all of his shit and technically have the upper hand. You can brick that shitty GameBoy any time you want... “I have business in the security wing, as do you, now just leave me be...”

“You spoke first, but I agree, speaking with someone as low as you is fruitless...”

>Lilith: Arrive

Your argument is ended finally by the *THUNK* of the sliding door opening. Jakob nods and steps out, not looking back. You slowly trail behind, stopping as soon as you’re out of the elevator, you can hear it headed up behind you, no doubt called by someone else. There are 3 elevators that move in a rotating fashion, always one direction, counterclockwise from the tower layout.

==>

Jakob was skilled with a knife, just as he could cut his foes with knives, he could cut with words as well. Your mind is brought back to your moral dilemma regarding this project, should you really be so attached? To go this far...?

>Lilith: Try to focus on something else

You fail immediately. You can’t help but feel like you don’t have much time left, eventually it’s all gonna come back to bite you, like it almost did that one day...

[[S]](https://soundcloud.com/heoaterder/03-blizzard) >Lilith: Remember

===

Rewinding live file... Done.

File 1/#0-BOREALIS/Nohr/A Motel on the road to Krakenburg/Unknown, five years ago.../Unknown time/Lilith/Destroy the evidence

===

Sirens, police surrounding the hotel you’d occupied, you can’t believe they’d send armed guard to arrest you for a simple data breach, but you can still salvage this, you move your mouse over a red button icon on your desktop, something you’d written. Two clicks and your computer would be toast, unable to be salvaged. You click once and stop, viewing a new window that’s opened, it seems your employer is still talking to you, even knowing that you’ve been caught.

———

BossMoro: Don't you dare disengage that connection.

AstralDragon05: Are you serious?

BossMoro: Deadly. I did tell you that the system you were breaking into was something to die for.

AstralDragon05: I don’t want to die, I’m sorry, but it’s not worth it to me...

BossMoro: You worry too much, you are the first and last person to break into that network. I’m not killing you, I’m landing you a job.

AstralDragon05: You’re crazy, they kill people trying to leak all the damn time, just shoot them on sight!

AstralDragon05: What makes this different?

BossMoro: Those leaks? Chump change. Borealis is so deep in the government's system that it’s likely they won’t know how to keep people like you out, there’s no way you’re not gonna get hired over there.

BossMoro: I promised you I’d reunite you with that phony hero, have I ever lied to you? Just give them some sweet talk.

|BossMoro ends chat with AstralDragon05|

———

The DRConnect window closes, you think about all of this. Running away from your father, searching for a legend you don’t even know is real, sounds like some shit out of a movie. There’s hope, hope that you’ll actually make it out of this, but you’ve always been more fearful than hopeful.

>Past Lilith: Self destruct

You double click the icon. Your computer's hardware case makes a few noises, static, crunching, and fizzling, the three sounds of a surefire short circuit and subsequent small explosion. 

==>

It’s then that you hear two bangs on your door, it’s shattered easily. From the dust, a band of figures emerge.

You don’t recognize the first two who step through the smoke, some cyclops who looks like he’s from a spy action flick, complete with a silenced pistol, and a flamboyantly dressed armored mage with a fire tome. 

The third figure makes his presence known easily, who wouldn’t recognize the face of Nohr's youngest prince, Leo? 

If royalty came for you, then that means that Boss was wrong, you really are getting executed right here right now...

===

File 1/#0-BOREALIS/Borealis Research Facility/June 3rd/4:20 AM/Lilith/Investigate alarm

===

>Lilith: Get focused

You snap out of your trance of remembrance, you needed to find a method of hearing Jakob's briefing, now. Your computer won’t do you any good here, not like it used to. But you do have one more trick up your sleeve... Though, you usually hated to resort to THAT power, you felt you were likely going to be relying on it more and more as the project launches.

>Lilith: Transform into a dragon and siege the fort!

Hell no, though that sounds like fun, and you love dragons. Dragons are supposedly a thing of the past, and they were notoriously powerful, but in these modern times, a dragon likely goes down just as easily as a butterfly when faced with advanced artillery... You will, however, use a technique you learned in your study of draconic mythos to get this job done.

===

File 1/#0-BOREALIS/Nohr/Borealis Research Facility/June 11th/4:20 AM/Jakob/Receive briefing

===

>Jakob: Obtain briefs

You’re already wearing some. What you really need to obtain is a briefING, which you’re on your way to do. Gunter's office is up some stairs, overlooking the whole security wing.

>Jakob: Stop to admire scenery

What scenery? This place has been built from the ground up as utility before artistic quality. D List area is extremely boring, but the levels above at least have some variation from the office building motif. The front area of the security wing is like a little plaza, there’s a multicolor pattern in the carpet of purple, black, and gold. 

==>

As you walk, you pass by a small bookshelf lined with magazines and newspapers, all of the news is from Nohr's government outlets. Freedom of press does exist, but they aren’t nearly funded enough to make a dent in the amount of news pumped out of Castle Krakenburg's printhouses. 

==>

You sigh as you spot a new issue of NINTENDO POWER. Looking to make sure nobody is watching, you take it, roll it up, and tuck it into your vest pocket. You’ll use it as an apology to Lilith. NINTENDO POWER is Nintendo's tech culture magazine, distributed to all countries neutrally. You’re sure she’ll enjoy the gesture. As much as you hate her absolutely, you couldn’t just leave things like that, it’s not good for a professional work environment. She’s, in a way, your rival. The two of you usually cross paths often, using eachother's skills to reluctantly work tasks faster and better than you could alone.

[[S]](https://soundcloud.com/agentkahn/the-silver-case-ost-15-kusabi) Jakob: Go to office, get the lowdown.

You don’t know what a lowdown is, you do, however, know where Gunter's office is. The tinted windows block all vision from the outside.

==>

You walk up and knock three times. You’re soon greeted by another face you detest. Gunter gives a small smile at seeing you. His gray hair a more natural shade than yours, his armored uniform and scars could tell anyone he was a true veteran. He was your mentor, and he taught you well, but even still, he underestimates your skills. 

“Good morning, Jakob... You’re a bit late, no worries, please step inside, there’s already much to discuss...”

“What about [RmVsaWNpYQ==]?” You ask, tilting your head.

“She’s likely still asleep... Besides, I want as few involved with this as possible, and [RmVsaWNpYQ==] needs to tend to the royals along with me. I’ve briefed [RmxvcmE=] already, and she’s making her way down to the scene as we speak.” Gunter steps aside, allowing you entry.

==>

The two of you sit down, him at his desk, you at a seat facing him. The room doesn’t have very much to it, you’re not too sure of what Gunter’s interests might be. He probably keeps their clues in his room like everyone else.

“I’ll be blunt...” the old knight begins, turning on a television to your left. “Cameras found two bodies in the D Lister floors... All of which had their clothes stripped, and their faces beyond repair. They’re unidentifiable. We have at least one intruder.” You scowl. Immediately coming up with a reason as to how this could happen. Gunter seems to read your thoughts. “There were no changes in the security software, we checked. This was a clean infiltration...”

You grumble. “So, one of Hoshido's ninja, is it?”

“We shall see... The plan is simple, but due to the timing, it sadly may prove difficult.”

You smile, you could handle it. 

Gunter nods to you. “Right then... [RmxvcmE] is investigating the scene for clues, get in touch with her as soon as you can, then locate the intruder, or intruders...”

“Simple enough.” You stand, headed towards the door. Gunter calls your name, stopping you.

“There’s more, way more. If you’d stop being such a loose cannon for one damn second...” You huff, turning to the veteran. “This intruder, Jakob, he could be after many things. They might not know about the project, and are simply here for money, perhaps they know that the royalty is coming, maybe they’re an assassin, or perhaps they seek to end, or take for themselves, the subject of Project Protagonist... Either way, we mustn’t raise any alarms. The royal family cannot know, nor can anyone but you, [RmxvcmE=], and me. If this slips out, the King’ll issue hell to pay, and this project could be stuck here for even longer, or worse still, canceled outright...” Gunter gives a serious look. You couldn’t argue with the fate of your charge at stake. “Don’t let your attitude get the better of you, now go, you’re dismissed...”

“Understood...” You mumble, quietly stepping out of the door.

==>

You could’ve sworn you’d seen a small blue orb rolling around the corner, down the stairs. You rush after it, but as soon as it leaves your sight, it’s gone... You deduce that it’s likely just the morning drowsiness and light mixed with the newfound tension playing with you... You need to get to D List floors, then contact [RmxvcmE=] right away.

===

File 1/#0-BOREALIS/Nohr/Borealis Research Facility/June 11th/4:30 AM/Lilith/Report findings to Moro

===

>Lilith: Retrieve strange orb

You feel a slight pain in your head as the blue orb you carry in the back pocket of your lab coat rolls under the door of the maintenance closet you were hiding out in. You grab it, stuff it back into its compartment, and disengage. Your forehead has a red glow, partially dimmed by your baseball cap, when you put the orb back, the glow dissipates.

==>

You get a good look at it from your 3DS’ face camera. You remove the hat to reveal what causes the glow. It’s a red gem in your forehead, you’ve been able to get away with calling it a hipster fashion statement. You’re not sure how much longer you can do that now...

[[S]](https://soundcloud.com/devolverdigital/el-huervo-feat-shelby-cinca) >Lilith: Remember more

===

Rewinding live file... Done.

File 1/#0-BOREALIS/Nohr/A Motel on the road to Krakenburg/Unknown, five years ago.../Unknown time/Lilith/Talk sweet

===

“My computer doesn’t even work, there’s a mistake here!” You plead with a prince of Nohr, so it’s not really pleading, more like delaying the inevitable.

“You were using it just before we came in here, I saw through that window tint, honey.” The cyclops says with a shit eating grin that you’d smack the shit out of were he not retainer to royalty.

“Move aside.” Leo says quietly. You do as your told, shutting your eyes. This was how it was to end, after all. No family to keep you company, you couldn’t find who you were looking for, just when you thought you were so close, that whack-job Moro sends you on a suicide mission hacking a weapons research base! Maybe he worked for the cops the whole time, if that’s true, then you know Hoshido sure as hell can’t win the coming war, not if the power Moro gave you gets improved...

You hear a noise, like, a sort of shimmering. It’s enough for you to open your eyes. There, you see Leo crouched down under your desk, inspecting your hardware. He lets out a faint groan as he takes a tome you don’t recognize out of his jacket. You watch as he flips it open to a page, and from his hands vines begin to wrap around your computer hardware’s case. 

There’s silence for two whole minutes. The flamboyant looking mage looks excited, the cyclops has his gun pointed at you, and the prince is just in total focus. 

Eventually Leo takes a screwdriver and opens the case, removing the motherboard and hard drive. You gasp.

“How is that even... Possible?” You mutter. 

Leo shrugs.

The youngest prince of Nohr just fixed a short circuited and exploded hard drive and motherboard. It’s like nothing even happened to it!

“I could ask you the same thing about your little job, but that’ll come later... The good news is, even though the stuff you stole would make you a fortune if leaked to the press, it’s worth jack shit to us in reality. The bad news is that you’re about to spend a large portion of your life paying off the tab.” Leo says, handing the hardware to his blonde retainer. (Upon closer inspection, you feel like you recognize the mage. But from where you can’t really place...)

“Lord Leo, that was once again quite the stellar performance! Your magical prowess never ceases to amaze!” He says.

“Does this mean we aren’t offing a lowlife hacker for once?” The cyclops asks, sarcastically pouting.

“Niles, finger off the trigger. Odin, get us ready to leave. Me and her are going to have a long chat later...”

You blink. Leo seemed like he was trying to be some kind of action movie hero, pretty edgy. But this is no time to laugh, you don’t exactly hold the high ground, even less so when you feel your hands cuffed by vines.

===

File 1/#0-BOREALIS/Nohr/Borealis Research Facility/June 11th/4:35 AM/Lilith/Report findings to Moro

===

>Lilith: Escape maintenance closet

No need, a commotion outside seems to take everyone’s attention. You peek out the door. Everyone’s crowded around one of the large windows of the security wing. 

>Lilith: Investigate

You push yourself to the front of the crowd. What you see is definitely cause for alarm. There’s a faint muffled screech far off in the distance, and a black speck moves very quickly towards the towers.

==>

No doubt, one of the royals has shown up early. Camilla possessed one of the two fastest animals on this earth, capable of outrunning and outmaneuvering even the most sophisticated aircraft. The speck of black cuts past the B tower, creating a sonic boom. For a split second, you can make out the outline of a purple haired figure atop a less than majestic wyvern.

==>

This may complicate things, all the more reason to hurry down to the D List Subway...

~~~  
CONTINUE TO 0.3: ACTION

~~~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everyone learns differently, but we learn all the same...
> 
> %%%  
> AUTHOR’S NOTE:
> 
> I had a lot of fun on this one, introducing the item system and whatnot. Hopefully you’re understanding the “systems.” By now.
> 
> If not, here’s a recap:
> 
> %%% = Author
> 
> ~~~ = Meta
> 
> === = Game console
> 
> ——— = Computer screen in-game
> 
> 0o0 = To Be figured out later...
> 
> FUN FACTS:
> 
> The jumbled text for some names is Base64 encryption.
> 
> Nintendo is a tech enterprise in this universe, so Nintendo Power Magazine is a computer culture and hacking mag.  
> I’ll be adding more [S] music, but I kinda wanted to get this out there first since I’ll be busy with finals soon.  
> EDIT: Fixed broken [S] music links, links are now also SoundCloud links rather than YouTube, better for mobile users.
> 
> I don’t think this series will get many views, despite my hard work with detailing the narrative. But I guess that’s what I get for trying to make a serious fic that isn’t constant shipping or smut and tries to give an actual meaning to reading it. :^)  
> %%%


	3. 0.3 - ACTION

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> %%%  
> AUTHOR'S NOTE:  
> [I] is for image, it’s reccomended you open these in their own tab to not lose your place in the story. I would’ve embedded them, but they were too large.  
> [V] is for video!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A game allows you to solve a conflict...

~~~  
0.3: ACTION  
~~~

===

File 1/#0-BOREALIS/Nohr/Borealis Research Facility/D-List 2F, Tower B/June 11th/4:40 AM/Jakob/Investigation

===

[[S]](https://soundcloud.com/prophet-of-loss/ending-1)

The entire floor has been evacuated, no doubt likely to destroy productivity for the day. At least the work they do here isn’t real for the most part, so the fate of the country doesn’t quite depend on it. Still, the darkened halls and abandoned cubicle spaces are making the area much eerier than it has right to be.  
Your partner for this assignment, [RmxvcmE], is kneeling down inspecting some bodies, taking photos on her 3DS.  
Looks like it’s time to get to work.

>Jakob: Who is [RmxvcmE]?

Well, now that you can see them, their identity is revealed. Your partner's name is Flora. She’s one of two sisters from a group called the Ice Tribe. Unlike her sibling, she’s quite the competent worker, but she’s still quite stubborn. You’re not much of a people pleaser anyway, Flora, much like many other people, is an obstacle to you.

==>

She looks over her shoulder, standing up and revealing the fate of the two D-Listers on the floor. You immediately take notice to the severe burns etched onto their faces like a brand, as well as their clothing's been stripped save for undergarments. If they were nobodies before, they’re even less than that now...

“No way to ID them, especially now that the floor's been evacuated. Gunter couldn’t make this easy, could he?” Flora complains. “Their work clothes have been stolen, as well as their IDs. The killers are probably in disguise now... But finding them is a whole other story!”

You rest your hand on your chin. “So... Any idea who exactly we're dealing with? I’d imagine it can’t be hard to single out two D-List workers who are out of place.”

Flora gives a worried look towards you, pointing towards the face of the male and female corpses. “Jakob... See how their faces are burnt beyond recognition? To do this would take a massive degree of heat, there’s no way that they did this without anyone noticing, right? Not even mages can do it that fast... Well... There is a way. I theorize.”

“You theorize...?” Uncertainty was the worst thing she could give to you right now, with the project at stake. There’s some silence, Flora seems really broken up about this. “Flora... I need you to answer, if we’ve any hope of getting this done.” Your words are firm, but gentle, sometimes you weaken in the face of Flora. Sometimes you weaken for no reason at all.

“The Fire Tribe...” She sighs, which causes you to raise an eyebrow. “It has to be one of them. Otherwise, there’s no way this could be possible.”

Now you understood why she was so nervous all of a sudden... The Fire Tribe worked for Hoshido, not to mention, Flora’s affiliation with the Ice Tribe might make her a target of sorts for whoever the infiltrators are...

===

>Narration_tribes_wip

Once upon a time...

==>

Three sacred tribes existed within this world. Fire. Ice. Wind.

==>

To the north of Nohr, the Ice Tribe flourishes. Their technological advancements are a little behind the current trends, but their affinities for ice can create some interesting abilities. Despite this strength, they’re weak in the face of national power.

==>

The Fire Tribe, on the other hand, works directly with their mother nation. To Hoshido's south is where they lie. While the Ice Tribe are architects and merchants, the Fire Tribe are at their core: Warriors. Carrying out missions for Hoshido's royal family.

==>

The Wind Tribe appears to be neutral, for now. They exist within the desert between Hoshido and Nohr. Though, they lean a little further east. They’ve been working to end tension between the other tribes.

==>

Said tension arose early on in the lifespans of those gifted with these special bloodline abilities. These tribes all used to exist in unison, but Fire attempted to melt Ice, and Ice grew colder in its defense...

===

File 1/#0-BOREALIS/Nohr/Borealis Research Facility/Dormitories, Tower B/June 11th/4:40 AM/[RmVsaWNpYQ==]/Introduction

===

A young girl lays on her back in her twin dorm room, the roommate she shares it with has already gotten along with her day. Judging by the mess around her, she’s on the floor due to falling, somehow. Her maid’s outfit is a little bit scuffed, scarred by many clumsy falls in the line of duty to Project Protagonist. Her hair is a bright cotton candy shaded pink. What is her NAME?

>Enter NAME: [Felicia]

F I N A L A N S W E R ?

>Confirm NAME: [Felicia]

...

...

...

H I T !

[[S]](https://soundcloud.com/agentkahn/the-silver-case-ost-25-24-wave)

>Felicia: Examine room

You push yourself up and off the ground, placing your room’s alarm clock and your water bottle back onto the nightstand next to your bed. That takes care of the mess!

==>

...Except for the spilled water. Oops! You quickly throw a spare towel onto it to quell the wetness from the carpet.

==>

Your name is Felicia. You work as a maid within the Borealis Research Facility. You’re also a hidden protector to the facility’s main project, but due to a certain attribute of yours, you’re not allowed to use weapons unless given permissions from security commander Gunter. As stated earlier, this room is shared with your roommate, and sister, Flora. As such, it’s one of the larger dormitories, even for B level clearance. Flora’s side of the room has a blue motif, the bed covers, her half of the window curtain, her lava lamp (which you find ironic for certain reasons...) and even her pillows are a bright blue. As such, your own hair color marks the motif of your half of the room, which is indicative of your interests.

==>

Your shelf has three tiers, the first displays a few objects. The second displays some books. The third displays an heirloom.

==>

A snow globe, a model of an ice cream cone with one scoop within, and a throwing knife. All of these are replicas made of ice. Your Ice Tribe blood is a bit stronger than your sister’s, so it allows you to not just change the temperature of objects, but also encase them in permanent ice. The only thing that can melt such ice is high level magical flame, or flame from a member of the Fire Tribe. It’s been said before that the descendants of the reigning chieftains of the Fire and Ice Tribes are fated to battle. As far as you know, the chieftain of the Fire Tribe is reported to only have one daughter, you have a feeling that it’s going to be Flora who undertakes the battle. Or at the very least, she has a much higher chance of surviving than you do.

==>

The second tier of the shelf holds several books, some on cooking, some on combat. Your cooking skills are laughable, some of the content of these cookbooks is just unreadable to you. You’ve given up on them for a long time now. The combat tutorials on the other hand are where you shine. You just wish your peers could see that... They don’t allow you weapon use without permissions, even in emergencies. They fear you’ll fall or hurt yourself. But in training you’ve only been very skilled, not clumsy. It’s just... everything else that you’re clumsy with.

==>

The final tier of the shelf is an heirloom from your father, the chieftain of the Ice Tribe. It brings some fond memories, and some not so fond ones too. You take the small chest and open it, inside is a snowflake symbol with the sigil of Nohr on it, to signify the alliance of the Ice Tribe and Nohr, made of unbreakable ice, of course. One of these ice pins was given to you, and another to your sister. As part of the agreement, Nohr’s administration is allowed to do what it wishes with the Ice Tribe’s key bloodline. Thus, you and your sister were brought here as retainers to the project. It’s been awhile since you’ve been home, but you have a feeling this project will reach completion soon! And on rare occasions, your father does speak with you over the phone.

>Felicia: Check in with Gunter

You open your Nintendo DSI Nano, it’s inferior to the 3DS, but more secure, and able to be managed and monitored by a certain few aside from you. The last time you had a standard issue 3DS, it got quite the amount of viruses. Thankfully with the security of the DSI, this isn’t an issue. Unfortunately this comes with much less features than that of any other DS or any Nintendo system for that matter. The communication features are all there including DRConnect, but it can’t play any games downloaded off the internet, they must be installed via officially licensed Nintendo cartridges. Your colleague, Lilith, sometimes hooks you up with cracks that get around the licensing issue, which is nice. The DSI also can’t be added onto hardware-wise, upgrading the camera or specs is impossible. What you see is sadly what you get, but it could be worse!

With those notes aside, you open your DSI’s standard phone call application, everyone else uses DRConnect but many times you find calling to be better. It’s not encrypted, but it’s much clearer and the servers can’t go out without a physical disturbance. You quickly tap on Gunter’s cell contact to initiate a call...

It’s ringing...

...

....

.....

“Good morning, Felicia.” The commander’s voice calmly greets.

“Morning, boss!” You reply, voice sounding chipper. “I’m ready for another work day, so... What should I do?”

“I’m glad you asked... Er... Actually, you’re likely going to be late. Flora’s already out on a job with Jakob, and you should’ve been in the hangar with the rest of the maids for the welcoming party fifteen minutes ago...” His voice flattens a little, but he doesn’t sound too angry.

You, however, are quite embarrassed. “Welcoming...? Oh! Oh you’re right! Okay... Okay, I’ll head up right away! I’m all dressed!”

“No need to rush, we’re quite well staffed at the moment. But please be careful, I wouldn’t want you trying to take the stairs to try and beat the elevator, hah.”  
They’ve all warned you about the stairs. They’ve told you.

“Gotcha, I’ll stick to the elevator. Hey... Wasn’t Flora supposed to be part of the welcome party too? What’s she up to with Jakob? Is it a date?” You ask, trying to squeeze any gossip out of Gunter.

“Nothing like that... They’re... Er... They’re making sure none of the D-Listers get the wrong idea and try to come to the higher floors for a look at the royals. That’s happened maybe twice already today with some bad results.” You note that Gunter seems uneasy about his answer.

“Oh... What happened? You know that’s not a good enough answer! I don’t want to mess something up if I get tangled in it all...” You pout to your boss.

“It’s nothing bad, just carry on with your assigned task. Camilla’s already in the building, and her Wyvern is being tended to in the storage floors. You need to keep watch of it for about half an hour while the welcoming party shows the rest of the royals in. I’m not sure which tower, but the storage floors are connected by bridges, so you should be okay.”

“Alright! Can’t wait, er... What if Marzia gets violent? Can I use my weapons?” You ask.

“You’ll be provided with a tranquilizer pistol up there, please refrain from using it on anything but Marzia. Other than that, your other weapons are prohibited. Apologies.” Gunter then hangs up, before you can get a word in. Phooey...

>Felicia: Hurry up to the storage floors!

You quickly shove your DSI into your pocket and rush out of your room towards the elevator. Of course, it’s gonna be in use for a little while. As you pass it by, you wonder about taking the stairwell, just once...

...Nah, too risky. If you take it slow, you’ll be even more late, if you take it too quickly, well, they warned you about the stairs, bro.

==>

You sit outside the elevator doors patiently, it’s gonna be awhile, but at least it gives you a lot of time to think and plan on how to not screw today up. Camilla’s wyvern, Marzia, isn’t so bad... Except for that one time she nearly killed Lilith, which was quite uncharacteristic of her.

===

C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S

You’ve now unlocked the ability to switch to the playable characters you’ve amassed so far at will!

Try it out, think hard and concentrate on who you want to be. Enter their LIFE!

...

File 1/#0-BOREALIS/Nohr/Borealis Research Facility/D-List Office Complex, Tower C/June 11th/4:46 AM/Flora/Investigation

I N V A L I D (Reason: DefinedRadiant Flora’s motion hidden by robots.txt)

===

You can’t be Flora. She’s busy with her own motivations and jobs that she definitely wouldn’t want you to see. Show some respect for privacy! Let’s try someone else...

===

File 1/#0-BOREALIS/Nohr/Borealis Research Facility/Underground Subway Station/June 11th/5:00 AM/Lilith/Meet your employer in the subway station

===

>Lilith: Arrive

The elevator doors slowly slide open, revealing the very bottom floor of the facility. The subway... It took awhile for you to get down here, you’re worried you might be behind schedule...

==>

For all its technical marvel, the Borealis research facility has a massive oversight. The elevators only move in a sort of clockwise rotation. There’s three elevators, except rather than one per tower going up or down, the designers must have wanted to flex some muscle. Thus... The elevators can move between towers as well as up or down. This makes it very easy to get where you’re going, but that’s assuming you get on the elevator, and that wherever you’re headed is next in line. The pattern is as follows:

[[I]](https://m.imgur.com/a/A1shrKk)

Now, if you recall the floor layout... The metro station is at the very bottom, it can be accessed by all three elevators. The problem is that requesting to go to the subway station is processed LAST by the elevator's system. No matter what. It will handle all other requests first. The only way for the elevator to get down to the subway station is to have it be the first request or have it complete a clockwise cycle. On top of that, you called the elevator at pretty much the very start of its cycle, so you had to go all the way around. It’s a damn miracle that these elevators haven’t bumped into each other... Next time, you’re taking the stairs...

==>

You take a seat at one of the waiting benches, as a few trains go in and out. Many D List workers shuffle through the sliding doors and through the revolving gates leading into the buildings proper. A few night shift workers (the lucky ones today, what with all the royal business going down.) board trains leaving for home, whether it be Nestra, Krakenburg, or the many boom towns that have sprung up in the past decade or so. This place is the only home you’ve known for five years, before that it was a lot of shitty motels and places you weren’t supposed to be... It’s better than the home you knew for the first decade of your life, you briefly wonder what your family may be doing now... The details of your early years are a bit hazy, but one thing for certain was that you were suffering there, so you ran off with your programming intellect and your dreams. Who knew a failed job would lead you to your close friends here? You consider them to be your new family...

[[S]](https://soundcloud.com/agentkahn/the-silver-case-ost-23-mikumo)==>

A massive man sits with his back to you, on the other side of the bench. He’s reading the morning paper, the “KRAKENBURG TEATIME” newspaper. He’s got a big coat and fancy hat that obscures the face. You pay him no mind and keep waiting for your boss to show up...

==>

Eventually, the man huffs in frustration. “Shit... This Silent Dragon's damned crossword puzzle... Hey, you, kiddo in the labcoat. Can you help me out?” He asks. “What’s a four letter word for an entity that never lies?” That question immediately causes you to raise your head in attention. For you know the exact answer.

“Data, sir.” You answer with a hint of a laugh.

“Heheh... Finally remembered the codeword, huh, Lily?”

“Morning, Moro!”

>Lilith: Converse with Moro

Moro has been the one helping you out for nearly a decade now, after some painful experiences leaving your toxic family life behind, he helped you get back on your feet, in exchange for your technical expertise and doing some fieldwork for his “organization”. Even if his methods are a bit unorthodox to you, he has never broken a promise, if he says things will work out, you believe in him.

“Yeah, well...” He stammers, putting away his newspaper and tossing his hat to the ground, revealing a rough face with soft, violet, short hair. “I don’t wanna be seen here, especially not with those royals in town! If their pop saw me, our whole operation would go right down the bottomless canyon!” Now he laughs, shifting to sit next to you. “But they ain’t gonna come down here, you know them, no time to mess with the commoners! So anyhow... What's up with your job? Been months since I’ve said shit to you, did you miss me?”

You nod. “Actually, yeah... I did miss you... You can blow up my computer anytime by thinking about it, but you’re still my friend! Maybe after all this is over, we can chill some more.”

He shakes his head. “Let’s keep things professional, maybe I’ll give you a promotion, then we can figure out the fun parts... You sure you wanna be like me?”

“A wise but cynical mentor for justice?” You reply. “Hell yeah. Minus the alcohol problem...”

“I’m not alcoholic, have you ever seen me drunk? I can get away with drinking seven times more than the average mortal being.” The both of you laugh at that, old friends, the two of you. Moro glances at his watch. “Okay okay, lets get serious. No point being confusing about everything, that’s more of an artist's thing. So, Lilith... What’s been going on?”

You frown, seeing where this is going. “Don’t you already know what’s going on...?”

He looks deep into your eyes, but his expression seems like he’s looking past you, rather than AT you... “The GAME has left alpha build, so today is a short tutorial for the audience. We need to recap the past, as much as you want it buried, Lilith.”

You take a frustrated breath of air. “Can’t you just... Show them? I don’t want to talk about it out loud.”

“I can’t show them everything, but we don’t need to delve that far, we must leave at least some air of mystery, for those that may be viewing this after the witnessing the completion of the original war...” Moro snaps his fingers...

===

File 1/#0-BOREALIS/Nohr/Castle Krakenburg/Dungeon/Date Unknown, five years ago.../Unknown time/Lilith/Interrogation

===

“You’re offering me a job...? Er, forgive my asking, but, why?” You ask the prince.

Leo's the only one in the room, he sent his retainers to do some business elsewhere. It doesn’t matter to you. “You broke into a network containing the D-List junk that clouds the truth of those three towers... But even still, doing something like that proves your potential. That, and... I don’t want to harm you, okay? Your background check doesn’t turn up anything criminal, your story is rather tragic, rather than kill you or let you free, I’ll offer you honest work for honest pay.” He slides some documents forward, they’re marked CLASSIFIED, this is getting interesting! “In here is the details for Project Protagonist, something that will solidify Nohr as the leading power of this world. I think your skills could help us keep it better protected, and better trained. Take a look, and no, you don’t have a choice in the matter. Unless you’d prefer death, but you don’t seem like that type. Just... Take a look, please.”

>Lilith: Take a look

You open the documents and almost want to scream, cry, laugh, or just gasp, any of those work for the excitement you suddenly feel... Moro was right all along.

The first thing that catches your eye isn’t the Virtual Reality mumbo jumbo, or the extremely detailed care taken in hiding the project from the world, or the retainers surrounding the project.

What makes you say yes immediately is a photo of a barefoot boy with white hair... He looks quite lonely. He reminds you of...

Well, he reminds you of you.

===

File 1/#0-BOREALIS/Nohr/Borealis Research Facility/June 3rd/5:10 AM/Lilith/Introduction

===

“I’m the one who told you about the vulnerability, nobody would've found it without help from divine intervention, fortunately I guess you could call me a divine intervention of sorts.” Moro chuckles. “You can start recapping out loud, now.”

You smile and nod. “After you got me the job, I got in and started assisting the project through IT work and other oddjobs. You’ve never told me why I need to do this for you, not entirely anyway, but I still trust you... Besides, I never thought I’d see him, to think he was here all this time...”

Your boss begins to frown, looks like things are getting serious... “Everyone knows the basic legend of the HERO, what fewer know are the details of that legend. Like every fairy tale, it’s been warped into a more acceptable nature.”

You roll your eyes. “Here we go... Can you make the legend recap shorter this time? You always make it drag on. Every time you tell me.”

“I’ll attempt... Don’t talk, just listen.”

>Lilith: Just listen

“Once upon a time...” Moro begins, in a more wishy-washy voice than before, “Two countries, one to the east and one to the west, held intense grievance with eachother.”

==>

“Mages and inventors from both countries came together with a realization: the discord between nations came from a lack of shared information. So they settled on creating a database using magic and technical innovation, the first database.”

==>

“In order for this plan to come into fruition, the group negotiated a peace summit between the two countries to commemorate the creation of the database.”

[[S]](https://soundcloud.com/kyle-farester/nier-gestalt-ost-the-incomplete-stone-acapella)==>

“Both kings agreed.”

==>

“The eastern king had a secret, a dark secret.”

==>

“A daughter named [REDACTED]”

==>

“Only the royal family knew of her existence, but the eastern king wished to make her public knowledge at the upcoming summit...”

==>

“Here's where things split a little.”

==>

“There’s two accounts of the summit given by rumormongers.”

==>

“One states that the eastern king's hidden daughter killed a good many people, before disappearing.”

==>

“The other states that she was kidnapped by the western king, after he’d disposed of the eastern king and his men.”

>Lilith: Interrupt

“That’s what we're gonna figure out, right?” You ask.

Moro nods, coming back down to reality. “Correct, our job is to find the database, it was never officially released, but it should hold the answers to the legend, and many more unexplained quirks of this world.”

“Data never lies...” You mutter under your breath, sadly. “So, theres the recap... What’s next?”

“The intruders in the building need to be captured, I’ve identified them, they’re key players in this. The only issue is that those who search for them wish them dead... So you need to find them first, they’re quite well hidden, however. But you’re gonna get their exact location in time...”

==>

A train begins to pull into the station, here to pick up all the D-List employees given time off after those killings...

Moro gets up too, stepping onto the train's platform as the doors open, he gives you a wave, and imparts one last piece of wisdom unto you:

“Beware of the wyvern.”

Before you can ask him what he means, a crowd of disgruntled pencil pushers storms the train platform, completely drowning you out.

Eventually, they all board, and the train shoots off into the city...

>Lilith: Survey the area

The station is now empty... Looks like you need to wait for a sign that something's wrong.

==>

In a few seconds, the sign seems to show itself as your 3DS vibrates in your pocket.

>Lilith: Answer

You open the screen to answer the DRConnect chat request.

———

|AstralDragon05 chats with GUNTER|

GUNTER: Sorry to interrupt your time off, but this is urgent.

AstralDragon05: Whats up boss?

GUNTER: Our servers seem to be acting up, nobody can access the internet or their work applications, the VR simulations are bugging out too...

GUNTER: They all keep directing to some strange website. It seems to be a video, the footage is some old Super Nintendo game...

AstralDragon05: Odd.

AstralDragon05: What about the royals?

GUNTER: They haven’t noticed, for now. But that can change.

GUNTER: Everyone's busy enough... I was hoping I could give you a break, but you’re going to have to reset the servers, manually. You know where they are, right?

AstralDragon05: Yup. VR Wing...

GUNTER: You’re technically not allowed clearance up there... But I trust you won’t go messing with the data.

AstralDragon05: Of course I won’t, it’s not of any use to me to mess with that stuff.

GUNTER: Good. Now get to it...

AstralDragon05: Wait

AstralDragon05: How is everyone...? I’ve seen Jakob, but what’s up with the others?

GUNTER: Well, the royals are in the building. The welcoming party was successful... Sort of.

AstralDragon05: What do you mean “sort of”?

GUNTER: Felicia had a slip up of sorts after the fact... Camilla's wyvern is loose in the building, the security team is helping her track it down.

AstralDragon05: Damn. That sounds really dangerous!

GUNTER: Don’t worry, we’ve got it under control.

AstralDragon05: Got it... Okay, I’ll head up to the servers.

GUNTER: Thanks.

AstralDragon05: Are we still on for coffee and chess around 6?

GUNTER: Hopefully. Now get moving!  
|AstralDragon05 ends chat with GUNTER|

———

A slip up? A loose wyvern? Intruders killing employees? Internet problems? It’s gonna be hard to make sense of all this... When predicaments like these arise, it’s probably best to just do your job and let the answers flow free...

>Lilith: Check the Internet

You open up Google Chrom on your 3DS, but your search engine homepage doesn’t come up, instead... A strange video file is loaded...

[[V]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2n7UnQlgPk)

You have no clue what this is, it’s old SNES footage that’s for sure, but the game is foreign to you. It looks interesting enough... But what does this have to do with anything?

You guess you’ll figure it out once you’re up there.

>Lilith: Ascend

Your hand hovers over the elevator button, then hesitates, you’ve been down this road before...

==>

You navigate to the stairwell, the trek up is going to destroy your legs, but time seems to be of the essence here!

>Lilith: Regard warnings about the stairs

You’ve given such a warning to Felicia, but you’ve never received one. The stairs aren’t an issue for you...

==>

As you begin your ascent, you shudder, what if Marzia's hiding out in this stairwell? Wyverns can blend in with any dark environments with ease... A small shadow becomes a hiding place.

==>

You hate wyverns, a wyvern is like a dragon with no manners, and for some reason all wyverns have a vendetta against you...

How the hell does an entire security team let a Wyvern leave their sight anyhow? Even with Felicia involved?

===

File 1/#0-BOREALIS/Nohr/Borealis Research Facility/Storage, Tower C/June 11th/4:50 AM/Felicia/Wyvern Handling

===

[[S]](https://soundcloud.com/user-679039713/alien-shock)

Things have gotten a little out of hand.

You and a few of the security team had Marzia perfectly under control. Tied up, seemingly docile, Lady Camilla was kind and gave her some sort of treat before walking off.

In the blink of an eye, she was gone, you’d tripped on something... And Marzia had simply vanished.

The security team had all gone off in different directions, barking reports to Gunter, searching all throughout the massive corridors of the storage hangar...

And then you were left alone.

>Felicia: Defend yourself.

You've learned about a situation right this, you aim your silencer and tranq-modded Beretta 92, if the wyvern pops out, you can instantly put her to sleep! Just gotta stay alert and not trip over again...

==>

It’s so odd, where did the rest of the security team go off to, you wonder? Surely Marzia wouldn’t leave this floor, would she?

==>

You wish this pistol had a flashlight equipped, then you could seek out Marzia with more ease, you could break the blend of the shadows... But alas, that won’t be possible.

==>

You’ve heard tell that wyverns are one of the two fastest animal species on this earth, alongside Pegasi. The difference is that Pegasi don’t have sharp claws or a diet of flesh...

==>

It’s funny, just moments ago you were telling yourself how tranquil Lady Camilla's wyvern was, yet now she's the biggest fear clouding your mind.

==>

Not only is losing Camilla's wyvern likely going to result in a hefty punishment if the situation isn’t dealt with soon... But this could end a lot deadlier than the last time something like this happened.

==>

You have to stay alert... At any moment, you could be under attack, you need to sense it before you can see it...

==>

...

...

...

All of sudden, you hear a step, and a high pitched noise that sounds kind of like giggling...

>Felicia: Take the shot!

You turn completely around, aiming, squeezing the trigger. You’ve never known yourself a bad shot, and a wyvern was a big target.

==>

Oh.

==>

Oh gods.

>Felicia: Look on in horror

Your target falls, sleeping soundly, but it’s not the right target.

They wear a gold and lavender colored blouse, ribbons fastened into the twin tails of her blonde hair...

You just shot the youngest princess of Nohr with a high dosage wyvern tranquilizer.

>Felicia: Don’t panic

It’s only a tranquilizer. You rush over to the fallen princess, she’s lightly snoring, pulse seems normal... All you gotta do is wait until she wakes up! Piece of cake!

[[S]](https://soundcloud.com/macular-chaotic/caution-mgs3)==>

“Oh dear... Marzia must be playing hide and seek again, and it seems dear Elise has joined in!” You hear a familiarly maternal voice call from the other side of the empty storage hangar.

Oh gods. Camilla came back.

>Felicia: Hide!

You can’t stay here, and you can’t leave Elise out either. But there doesn’t seem to be anywhere to go...

==>

You scoop up Elise (who is surprisingly light for her age) and look around, for something, anything, to hide in. But all you see are endless rows of organized crates, boxes, lockers, safes, parts...

You stare at an intact, but empty, large light cardboard box.

You begin to formulate a plan...

~~~  
COMPLETE IN 0.4:CLIMAX  
~~~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Without a conflict, there is no game...
> 
> %%%  
> AUTHOR'S NOTE:  
> This took way WAY longer than expected. I initially wanted this to be the last part of act zero, but I think I can live with splitting the last part into two. I’ve left this series alone for too long and don’t expect to continue doing so. There’s lots of strange things in this chapter. I'm hoping this is making enough sense without being predictable.  
> Some extra stuff I should explain about this AU's world:  
> ~Hoshido and Nohr have different internet jurisdictions. Each with their own specific content censoring. Strangely enough, Nohr only really censors extreme content and untrusted news sites. Hoshido has much more strict laws, maybe you’ll see some of the repercussions of this later.  
> ~The world was in medieval times not that long ago, but thanks to advancements in magic and technology by the Nintendo Company, the world has been considerably modernized.  
> ~To recap Lilith's story, (since I’m aware it’s not all too clear) she ran away from her toxic family life to pursue a classified goal. After meeting and joining Moro, he instructed her to break into the research facility's servers, which prompted action from royal authority. Lilith thought she was being set up, but in reality, Moro was helping secure a job position at Borealis to help the both of them reach their goals.  
> ~The video that the internet server of Borealis has been infected with is footage from forgotten Nintendo SNES game: Marvelous. How does Marvelous fit into this plot? You’ll find out in the thrilling conclusion to act 0 of this series!  
> ~We now also have some limited visuals on top of music links! What a momentous occasion. I’m working on sprite designs for some characters. As you can see, Lilith's redesign is done. I didn’t feel the need to redesign much of the other retainers, since they still maintain the Maid/Butler aesthetic. Hopefully, thanks to these diagrams, you’re more familiar with the Borealis layout. Next time, our characters will get into some fights and scuffles across the facility. So knowledge of the map will keep things from getting too confusing. Pretty soon I’ll also incorporate actual images and not just map/UI stuff  
> ~I changed the date of the events to June 11th, I forgot my detail about testing day being on the 2nd Tuesday of the month. I’ll be making little typo fix changes in the coming days, so I’d like any reported to me if you find them.  
> ~Get ready for Metal Gear references in the next chapter, which will be out a lot sooner than this one.  
> ~As always, critique is appreciated! I know this concept is strange, and it’s only gonna get stranger. So ask the questions now rather than later if you feel you must.  
> ~The inventory system from the last chapter won't show up too often, it’s both cumbersome to read and write, so it’ll probably only show up in certain situations.  
> ~The gameplan After 0.4 will be to release a short bonus chapter: Coffee And Chess Around 6:00 AM. This will serve to recap and tease what’s been going on and what’s to come respectively.


End file.
